they also wanted a freely elected government instead of one appointed by the king. the protests were focused around pearl square, crowds pushing for a revolution. many of the protesters were women. a month later, the regime struck back with force. the crackdown was supported by bahrain's ally and neighbor, saudi arabia. riyadh sent troops to help quash the protests. tanks and helicopters cleared the square. 35 people were killed. the country is torn between iran and saudi arabia. this puts it in the front and center of the standoff between sunni and shia muslims. >> bahrain is rightly fearful of the iranians, but in my view, it makes the mistake of presenting its own shia opposition as loyal to iran. at the same time, bahrain is in actual fact no longer independent. saudi arabia has always set the limits of any reform process there, and it has important allies within the ruling family, to the extent that i do not think bahrain can act completely independently. >> in other words, if the u.s. and european powers want to influence bahrain's king, they will have to do i